Red Rocket
by KnackeringLordNee
Summary: A Raider boss finds an easy target, the crew have their doubts. Rated "Mature" because my experience has been that Raiders are drug using potty mouths.


"It's just up the hill," Canker said, passing out a hit of Jet to everyone in the crew. She wasn't being a goody-nice girl, she just wanted the raid to go well. We rounded the last corner outside Concord and looked at Canker's payout. I nearly fuckin' shit myself.

"You didn't say it was a Red Rocket!" I said, trying to sound pissed instead of scared.

Canker heard though, she always did.

"Whatcha pansying about? I told you, It's abandoned, but loaded. I watched it for days, the only things I saw moving was this weird barrel shaped robot and a couple of turrets. No humans. Not even set up like a settlement. Maybe some Upper Stands asshole's country home away from the big city. Watched the local Muties try to attack the place a couple of times. Big dumb green fuckers, they kept coming at it from the road, which is the only place the turrets are pointed! We come around the back and we'll be in without the turrets seeing us."

"I ain't gettin' near no fuckin' Red Rocket," Deek said. Evo and I nodded. "It could be where HE lives."

"Who?"

"Are you fuckin' stupid?" Deek snarled. "Pop some Mentats asshole, THE Red Rocket."

Canker cackled an ugly laugh; the way she did whenever a settlement kid got caught in the crossfire.

"The guy who tore up the Corvega plant?" She asked. "The guy who turned every quarry around into a blood bath? The guy who made Ack-Ack and her crew at Olivia look like a Super Mutant Thanksgiving?"

We all nodded.

"You guys'll believe anything! Fuck, that's stories. That's crews not wanting to admit they got bested by a bunch of starving farmers they couldn't keep down. It's shit to scare the little kiddies around the campfire."

"It ain't stories, " I said. "Pete says he sees him at the graveyard all the time. Bright red flaming power armor, huge fuckin' axe, running to Diamond City and back."

"Pete says?" Canker scoffed. "Prayin' Pete, the guy who still has the hots for a corpse? Real fuckin' reliable intel from that shitwit."

"Nah, man. It's true," Deek said. "I've got a cousin snitching in Diamond City, she's seen him there selling lots of Raider gear to that uptight bitch Myrna. Looks just like Freddie says. She steers clear of the market whenever he and his wolf are in town."

"Wolf," Canker muttered, rolling her eyes but glancing at the Red Rocket up the hill. Was that uncertainty I saw? She must have been coming down, normally she was too cranked up to be uncertain of anything.

"Yeah, a fuckin' wolf. It's like a dog, but hairy, an' meaner than a whole pack."

"I know what a wolf is, asshole, and that just proves it. Ain't no such thing, it's from stories, like 'Little Rad Raiding Hood.' All this crap you're spouting is Minutemen lies, like this "Vault Dweller" garbage that radio idiot keeps on about. Just stuff to keep us off balance and scared. And it looks like it's working, on you doofs anyway. So, moonlight's wastin' are we gonna do this thin…."

"I heard about that axe," Evo said, as usual behind in the conversation. "The Red Rocket got it from the Unstoppable Barbarian when he pledged 'raiders, raiders get the axe.'"

Canker sighed deeply, and fingered her prized revolver stuck in her belt. She looked like it wanted to use it on the lot of us. Instead she pulled out a hit of Psycho, jabbed it into her pockmarked arm, and closed her eyes waiting for it to hit.

She opened them and any doubt she had was gone. "OK, look, are you fuckers going to stand around here all night yappin' or are we going to hit this place?"

Deek, Evo and me looked at each other, still uncertain, nervous.

"I know things have been hard lately," Canker said, a gentleness in her voice I'd never heard before. "I get it. The Minutemen are making a comeback, settlers are growin' some spine, We've lost a lot of guys, and we've gotta work hard for what used to come so easy. But that's life, and things will get easy again. The Minutemen will tear each other up, just like last time, the settlers will lose their nerve, and we'll be back on top where we belong. This raid, this can be the start of that, it'll let them know we're still here and not to be fucked with."

She stared at us expectantly. After a few seconds of silence she added, "And if we get going right now I'll give you each a hit of Daytripper when we get back to camp."

We followed Canker up the hill, running up the road toward the Red Rocket. I didn't think about it until the turrets started chugging, but we were supposed to go around back. Guess in her Psycho haze she'd forgotten THAT part of the plan….

I huffed my Jet and watched the bullets from the turrets slow to a crawl. It felt good to be a on raid again. Maybe when we were done with this place we could pay those smug shits up the road in Sanctuary a little visit.

When the wolf thing sprang out of the darkness, grabbing Deek by the throat, I spent an eternity watching it happen, watching the blood spout slowly into the night air. When the door to the Red Rocket slid open, and HE bounded out, a story made flaming red real, right down to the axe, and quick, even with my brain buzzing with Jet, I spent my whole life watching him slaughtering us. Canker's head wafted into the bushes. Evo doubled over when the axe caught him in the gut and then kept on folding in a way no one was ever meant to.

Sound blurs and slows on Jet, but I heard it, his joyful cry, "Raiders?! Raiders get the axe!"


End file.
